The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago

Sponsored Links

Before the Trinidad Art Society was born, a small group of painters, poets and writers including Amy Leong Pang and Hugh Stollmeyer among others – dubbed the “Society of Trinidad Independents”, taking their cue from the modernist movements in Europe- pointed the country into the headwinds of contemporary art. They revelled in Gauguin, Modigliani and the growing fascination with African art; their metaphysical leanings found a ready response in Shango – Baptist beliefs with strong echoes of Orisha in Benin. The group ran afoul of a fundamentalist press whose vitriolic attacks were partially responsible for the disintegration of the body (after nine years) in 1938. Their pioneering visual work, however, was to have a profound influence on the development of art in Trinidad and Tobago.